united states citizens, alone. f different people. some of them believe that, you know, the atf is basically now arming the cartel, you know, because of fast and furious. how would you respond to that? >>that's just a small percentage of all the firearms that were being recovered right now in mexico. >>like if you had to put a guess on the percentage what do you think it would be? >>oh. can i? can i? >>no. no. >>i can't speak on this? >>we're not speaking on the percentage. >>any misstep we take, it's always pounced on. we've got a target on our backs. we always have. g war rages on in mexico, firearms continue to flow across the border, and the body count continues to rise.

>>so we're currently back at the csi headquarters where they're unloading the latest victim of gun violence in a seemingly endless drug war that has claimed the lives of more than 47,000 people in the past four years.

[ music ] >> bill: hey, what do you say? good morning, everybody. it is a friday. finally, reached the end of this week. friday, march 15th. good to see you today. welcome to the "full-court press" here on current tv. there is a busy, busy news day. lots to talk about. lots that you are going to want to call about. and you can do so, of course giving us a call on our toll-free line at 866-55-press. we also invite you to join us on

twitter. follow us on twitter and give us your comments @btshow. and facebook.com/billpressshow. indeed, rome pope francis spending part of his first day by going off to pray at a basilica to the blessed mother and then stopping at the hotel to pay his bill and pick up his luggage just like any other tourist in rome. here in washington, d.c., president obama no tourist, head of the free world up on capitol hill first he met with the senate republicans after which even mitch mcconnell said that it was a good exchange and a good meeting. and then the president met with house democrats, assuring them that he was not going to make any severe cuts to medicare or to social security or to medicaid. across the river ctac is underway. yesterday's speeches by rand paul who said the party needs a

big shake-up and marco rubio who said we don't need any new ideas as republicans. we'll cover did it all right here next on current tv. [ music ] billy zane stars in barabbas. coming in march to reelz. to find reelz in your area, go to reelz.com

alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. (vo) this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside.

(vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. [ music ] >> this is "the bill press show." >> bill: what do you say? the dow, 10 days in a row now that we have a new record set with the dow industrial average. i am telling you this economy, the obama economy on its way back. happy. are you ready for this? are you ready, dan?

a happy friday. ♪ alleluia. ♪ >> bill: friday march 15th. ♪ alleluia. ♪ >> favorite day around the full court press. it seems like this friday was a long time in coming. i don't know. maybe it's because this week -- this was a 5-day work week for me. >> appear 5-day work week >> bill: i didn't get to take a couple of days off this week. great to see you this friday. thank you for joining us here and being part of the full court press as we come to you live on current tv, as we come to you live on your local progressive talk radio station where you happen to be in this great land of ours, whether it's los angeles or chicago or asheville, north carolina or buffalo, new york or any spot in between or -- and how about madison wisconsin? didn't mean to check over that. a lot of great places. also, coming to you live on sirius xm, this hour only.

lots to talk about. a lot that you are going to want to comment on. we will give you a lot of different ways to do it. you can give us a call at 866-55-press. you can join us on twitter. get my tweets from the white house briefings and talk to us in the morning @bt show. @btshow. simple enough and on facebook at facebook.com/billpressshow. talk to us on facebook. talk to the whole team here peter ogburn and dan henning. >> peter: happy friday. >> bill: happy friday. here we go with phil backert on the phones and cytrian boulding on the video cam. >> we are all here >> bill: yes indeed. president obama continuing what they call his charm offensive on capitol hill yesterday. >> peter: i didn't think i would get tired of that phrase this quickly. good lord. >> sitting down and having

meetings. >> peter: everybody says the same thing. >> bill: they are making a big deal about it. he did meet with housecrats democrats yesterday. we had a couple of house democrats in studio here yesterday. keith ellison and peter welch to preview the president's meeting with the house democratic caucus. today, we'll have a couple of democrats in, cot petters from california and john yarmou. h from kentucky to tell us all about their conversation with the president yesterday. won't find that anywhere else on cable news this morning. the president went to meet with the republicans. he got plaudits. >> we felt it was a very good meeting. he was very candid. he certainly understands that you can't fix the country without adjusting entitlements to fit the demographics of our country. >> bill: not sure what that means. i think mitch mcconnell is seeing too much in what the

president said. the president, yes, he does recognize the need for some reforms in social security and medicare in order to make them work better. but he assured senate house democrats yesterday he has no intention of going along with the republican plans top, in effect, gut medicare medicaid and social security. again, we'll find out more about that big meeting with house democrats yesterday from scott peters from california. newly elected, last november from san diego. and john yarmou. h, former reporter now congressman from kentuckyth, former reporter, now congressman from kentucky and to ask him about ashley judd. >> hot ticket >> bill: we will talk with john -- what am i saying? james holman from politico. he has been over at the big ctac

meeting. we will tell you about that, too. and senator dianne feinstein gets an assault weapons ban out of the senate judiciary committee yesterday. a big first step. >> first, this is the full court press. >> other headlines making news on this friday, another big problem for the carnival cruise line. just a month after one of their ships floated with no power in the gulf of mexico yesterday, the carnival dream suffered mechanical problems while docked in st. martin. toilets didn't work for a while. the only good thing was that they were in port. so people could actually leave the ship. guests are now -- they have cancelled the rest of the cruise. guests are being flown home and given a refund for three days of the cruise that they will miss plus half off their next cruise should they choose to book another one. >> gee, thanks >> bill: how about a show of hands. how many listening or how many watching would go on a carnival cruise? >> they ought to change the name >> bill: hello. i see one hand raised.

they ought to change the name. i don't know. there is a death wish on it or something, man. somebody put the hoax -- the hex on it. >> peter: also, i don't work in tr, clearly but if you just had a horrible experience on a cruise ship, maybe give them something other than another trip on the traumatizing cruise ship that you just got off of it. >> they are not giving them a trip trip. 50% off. >> bill: half off the next trip. right? and then reimburse them for three days because that's all that was left on the cruise. here is what i want to know, too. so they are like what? 6,000 people on that ship or 4,000? whatever? right? imagine the lines at the restaurant in that port. you say you had to go out to use the toilet. everyone, our restrooms are for guests only. right? >> uh-huh. >> bill: 0, man. >> bill clinton had some fun in

new york last night. the former police department attending the big east tournament quarterfinal game t louisville won over villanova. clintonposed for photos and chatted up a storm, stayed around for a while. but by asked by estn who he wants to win the march tournament, he has to go with georgetown, his alma matter. >> loyalty. >> game from. >> the philadelphia eagles cheerleaders want the late singer, michael jackson's daughter to work for them. the cheerleading director has seen paris jackson cheer for her high school and has been impressed but paris is only 14 years old. you have to be 18 with a high school to be an nfl cheerleader. >> there it is. there it is, the future you hope for, for your daughter. right in the for michael

jackson's daughter to be an eagles cheerleader. jesus. go to college and get the a degree and become a doctor. >> it fits the story line. it's totally crazy but not too crazy crazy for the michael jackson family. >> look at how young they started to groom him. >> exactly. now son working for entertainment tonight. >> poor kid starting with being michael jackson's kid. that fact. right? well the big political news of the daytion, you probably heard no matter where you are in this country, yesterday, indeed not here in washington, d.c. this year but in the washington area across the river in an absolute worse possible place you could hold a convention. let me put it that way. a place called the national harbor. it is. it is isolated. it is remote. it doesn't belong there.

no public transit. it is a total abortion in terms of a development in the national harbor and that's where ctac is holding its conventionpac is holding its convention. nobody goes there. nobody cares for it. it's kind of like the republican party. >> a total dump. at any rate, that's where cpac is. and yesterday, all of the crazies turned out. i mean even newt gingrich says, i don't know what the purpose of cpac is any more. i really don't know what it's all about. steve schmidt, an nbc con contributor contributor. saying the republican party needs renewal the. stead instead we have having one of these confabs with the crazies of the party. sponsored by the american conservative union on the board of which of course, sits grover norquist. but they are trooping out there. and they decide this is their

showcase? right? where they bring all of the people that they think are the leading conservatives of the country together to do their little song and dance routine in front of a great big haulll of whackjobs, whacko. >> whacko-birds. >> what cano-birds. it was kind of funny. the candle value of clowns includes sarah palin, clown, the biggest of all. well, i don't know. maybe donald trump is the biggest of all. he will be speaking. rick perry spoke yesterday. mitt romney is going to speak today. today. i look forward to seeing the reaction to the crowd to mitt romney because, first of all, they didn't like him in the first place. they didn't want him as their nominee. they got stuck with him. they didn't really do much to help him win the presidency. they don't like him. they don't like his politics but they invited him today. they did not invite two leading

conservatives because they think they got too buddy buddy with bill clinton. number 1, chris christie not invited, and they said flat-out, the leaders of the conference chris christie got too close to barack obama after hurricane sandy, helping out the people of new jersey. how dare he. how dare he travel on that helicopter with the president, look at the storm damage and getting help from the federal government. for the people of new jersey who were wiped out. that disqualifies you. it shows you how crazy they are. right? and the other governor not invited -- get this. bob mcdonald from virginia, a conservative. you can't get more conservative than he is. he is the one who wanted to do the vaginal probe. right? in virginia, supported that legislation. but bob mcdonald made a mistake. he accepted some federal highway

money for virginia, which required them to raise taxes i think on the gas tax or somehow to pay for these highway improvements and god knows northern virginia particularly needs them. no, because he did that and made a deal with the federal government, the department of transportation, he was not invited to cpac. but all of the rest of the crazies were. and it turned out, there was a big split yesterday in the message. -- the messages given to cpac. first of all rand paul scale in hot off of his drone filibuster and said the party needs a shakes-up and a new cleansing. >> the got of old has grown stale and moss-covered. i don't think we need to name any names. do we? >> you know who he is referring to. >> our party is inc. covered by

an incounsistent approach to freedom. the new g.o.p. will need to embrace liberty in the comic and the personal sphere. >> which is sort of saying all much those emphasis on the social issues? right? liberty on the personal spear means get the government out of my bedroom. this is the libertarian speaking. when he says, i don't need to name any names, he was talking about john mccain who called him a whacko bird for raising the issue of drones on the floor. when he says that the party is stale and moss-covered, he means the current leadership of the party. >> it's rare you get to the see these things play out some publicly. these things happen and politicians want to jockey but they are calling each other out in public. >> bill: then the darling of the establishment, the perceived savior of the republican party, marco rubio gets up, and he says

what do you mean we are stale? >> number 2, didn't off any new ideas. there is the fallacy of it. we don't need a new idea. there is an idea. the idea is called america. it still works. >> there is marco rubio talking his old prombromage. god is he handsom? yeah but he doesn't say crap. it's just empty words. >> if he runs for president, you will hear that again. we don't need any new ideas. >> they don't need any new ideas. they got clobbered in the last ideas. they lost by 5 million votes, lost the senate, they lost the white house and 10 seats, 8 or 10 seats because they don't have anything. look at the ryan budget, a party desperately in need of new ideas but marko rubio says yeah but we don't believe in same-sex marriage, marriage equality, again, showing how they are on

the wrong side of history but he said i ain't no bigot. i expect people to disagree we me but they have to reece expect me. that states should have to define marriage in the traditional way does not make me a bigot. just because we believe that life, all life all human life is worthy of protection at every stage of its development does not make you a chauvanist. >> at any rate there is the big split coming out of cpac so far. does the republican party sneed a shake-up? does it need new ideas? or does it stay the way it is? marco rubio says we are fine. we don't need any new ideas. randall paul says scrape the moss off. get some new ideas. start to outreach and moved in to maybe at least the 20th

century if not the 21st century. more on cpac coming up on your calls at 866 starting off friday morning, march 14th, on the "full-court press." >> this is "the bill press show." the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv.

alright, in 15 minutes we're going to do the young turks. i think the number one thing young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden

agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is "the bill press show." >> it's 26 minutes after the hour now. here on the full court press this friday morning, talking about the carnival of clowns

across the river in oxen hill maryland, called cpac. just one more little story from there. grover norquist, the man with the famous finds that the republicans -- the man that every republican is afraid of because he forces them to sign their finds that they will never, never, never, never vote to raise taxes in any way, he spoke yesterday and he has some unkind words for any republican who would ever vote for a tax increase. it's kind of a really far-fetched gee here he ends up calling them rats in a coke bottle. >> you get two-thirds of the way through your bottles of coke and you look in, and there is a rat head in what's left in your coke bottle. you do not say to yourself, you know i am wondering whether i am going to finish all of the rest of this particular bottle of coke this evening. you begin to wonder where you will buy coke in the future. you go on local t.v. and show the cool rathead.

it has a very large problem worldwide. it damages the brand. republicans, elected officials who vote for tax increases are rat heads in a coke bottle. >> bill: that was so tortured. >> it really was. >> that's the best way to put it. >> tortured. how do you come up with that? first, you have to explain the whole coke bottle thing. first. right? yeah. yeah. nice try grover. maybe the most significant thing that happened yesterday was not president obama's meeting with senate republicans, nor his meeting with house democrats but the fact that in the senate judiciary schmidt, senator dianne feinstein won package out of the senate judiciary committee to the floor for her bill to ban assault weapons. this is a cornerstone of these begun safety measures in front of congress now on the senate floor. do you think she can get it passed with the senate floor?

866-55-press. we will talk about that when we come back. >> this is "the bill press show." to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room monday to thursday at 6 eastern

[ music ] >> chatting with you live at current.com/billpress, this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: thirty-three minutes after the hour. here we go on a friday march 15th. good to have you with us today. it is the full court press, coming to you live from our nation's capitol brought to you today by the good people of u ullico, inc., serving the union workplace for 85 years providing specialty insurance, risk

products and investment services under president ed smith. to find out more about their good work, go to their website, ullico.com, solutions for the union workplace. we will get back to cpac and some of the going dids on there yesterday and some of the battles. >> the battle for the heart and soul of the republican party. a very important vote they stead the assault weapons ban was doa, never gevent out of the senate judiciary committee. she got it out. it was a party line vote. it goes to the floor of the senate not without a heated ex change from freshman senator ted cruz, and the author dianne

feinstein, senior senator from the california. here is ted cruz lecturing the senator, basically, senator, you don't know what the constitution says. >> the term, "the right of the people," when the framers included it in the bill of rights, they used it as a term of art. that same phrase the right of the people is found in the first amendment to petition their government for redress of grievances and the fourth amendment, the right of the people to be free from unreasonable searchs and seizures. the question i would pose to the senior senator to california is would she deem it consist ent with the bill of rights for congress to engage in the same endeavor that we are contemplating doing with the second amendment in the context of the first or fourth amendment? >> bill: oh man, senator die

dianne feinstein. >> this is auld man-stlaining when a guy like ted cruz who is probably wrong but is so confident in what he is saying that he talks down and condes condescend s to a woman but let me tell you something, man-stlaining. >> ted cruz is on his high horse. luke at al franken hillary clinton. not just democrats and republicans. they get their first year, second year, their first term, you know, learn the robes. he liz beth warren is not strutting as a peacock, a workhorse. ted cruz, no, he is determined

right? that from day one he will be the start star. dianne feinstein ate his lunch, ripped into him after that manstlaining of his. >> let me make a couple of points in response. one of, i am not a sixth grader. senator, i have been on this committee for 20 years. i was a mayor for six years. i looked a lot bodies shot with these weapons and seen the bullets. in sandy hook youngsters were dismerred. it's fine you want to lecture me on the constitution. know i have been here for a long time. i have passed on a number of bills. i have studied the constitution myself. i am reasonably well educated and i thank you for the lecture. >> bill: bam. bam. >> reasonably well educated >> bill: in other words, shut up and sit down. >> in other words, f-u. >> jesus.

the president has put forward and the senate judiciary committee passed and the measures which chuck grassley supported which will make straw purchases a felon. >> that's an important bull. the bill to have universal background checks responses ordered by chuck schumer passed. this ban on assault weapons. i am telling you i would love to know what you think about this. 866-55-press. but senator feinstein knows what she is doing. she authored the original bill, which had its flaws because it was too easy for gun

manufacturers to make minor changes. she has tightened up on that. i think the number is 257 semi automatic weapons which would not be covered by her bill just to make sure that, you know people can say -- people can't say this is banning all guns or confiscating all guns kind of approach. she is clear in what is and what is not covered up this legislation. she has written it and defined it very very carefully. i will tell you something else about senator feinstein and i know her very well. i have been on -- she is a good friend of mine, but i have been on both sides of issues with her despiting alongside of her on some issues and opposing her on some issues. and she is one tough cookie. she is one very smart legislator and very effective legislator. she knows the senate and the ledge legislative process better than anybody. and i say all of those people who say that there is no way an assault weapons ban is going to pass the senate.

i heard it yesterday from several friends of mine. i tell them you are undercutting and under estimating the abilities of senator dianne feinstein. get move to get this legislation passed. she showed it when she whacked ted cruz. >> you said it for a long time that ted cruz is going to step in it. >> bill: he is. >> he is going to really piss somebody off that he shouldn't piss off. dianne feinstein strikes me as the kind of person you don't want to piss off. >> bill: yeah. >> he did yesterday. >> bill: alex calling from indiana. alex, what's your take? >> caller: good morning, everybody. first, i want to say that i have never read any news about a guy with a bag full of ak-47s and doing any good for humanity. >> bill: in what? >> caller: good for humanity. my wife has to -- >> bill: alex? alex? oh, damn. >> we lost him careflites are

great whether they work. >> yeah. >> bill: as we know, they don't always work. alex was getting ready to make a point about his wife. >> that's too bad. but so this bill now goes to the senate floor. it's going to be tough. but just one other comment back to the phones in a second hear about senator feinstein. if you remember, she became mayor of san francisco in a very, very tragic way. she became mayor of san francisco when she is sitting in here? and she hears gunfire and she walks down the hall, and i by the way, i work would right in that veryo office where she was sitting as an administrative assistant to a san francisco supervisor. she is the supervisor chairman of the board of supervisors at the time. and she hear gunfire. she walks down the hall and finds harvey milk in his office on the ground, on the floor, dan white who had shot and killed him had fled. and she literally puts her hand on harvey's pulse, you know.

blood-soak would hand puts it there, on his wrist trying to find a pulse and on his temple trying to find a pulse, harvey milke shot and there is george mascone, the mayor shot and killed by dan white. and she is trying to see if she can find any sign of life in george masconi. >> that's how she becomes mayor of san francisco. this will woman doesn't need any preaching, any texan preaching to her about guns. she has been there. she knows it. she has seen them. she and that has marked her for her entire life. rightfully so. is it jody? jody out in denver kovment hi jody. good morning. >> good morning. >> i think the senate from texas and probably a couple of supreme court justices could use some of the classes i teach around government and remember to read the part of the second amendment

where the words "well-regulated" are included because it's incumbent upon congress to regular regulate the whole gun issue in the actual second amendment. so when they ruled that we all have the right to a gun a few years ago, they missed the part about the well regulated. now, here we are listening to this senator going after senator feinstein and talking about the constitution. >> yeah, but joty even -- even in that decision they did client the government to enact, if you will, or to adopt some regulations on guns. they never said that any and every gun -- right? had to be allowed, even machine great north woods or ament aircraft missiles or something in your front yard. >> very true. very true. >> so you are right. that well-regulated, and, jody also, well-regulated what?

malitia. >> yeah. >> bill: [for you. i am glad that you are a student at least of learning that in your classroom. back to cpac. james holman has been part of the clache of the of reporters covering the crazies at the cpac convention of the he will join us next here on the "full-court press." >> on your radio and on current tv, this is the full"the bill press show." gripping, current. (vo) this afternoon, current tv is the place for compelling true stories. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

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(vo) current tv gets the converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. [ music ] >> this is "the bill press show." >> bill: thirteen minutes before the top of the hour. now, here we go on the "full-court press." on a friday morning, march 15th,

yes, across the river, oxen hill maryland. what do they call it? the national. >> narcial harbor >> bill: right. cpac started. probablyt. calling it the scrum from politico led by james holman who joins us on our news line. >> good to talk with you, bill. >> i am glad you are over there so i don't have to go. >> you are going to miss donald trump later this morning. >> i know. that might be worth seeing. so who was the star yesterday? back and forth between marco rubio and rand paul. you get the same kind of red

meat. in past years, obama hate. criticism of the president because that always gets the conference goers excited. what you saw yesterday from rand paul and marco rubio was two very, very different visions for where their movement should go. obviously, they come from different wings of the right narco rubio said. we don't need to change. what we have is great. and, in fact, very tellingly didn't talk about immigration. >> exactly. yeah, i mean he actually said, we don't need any new ideas which is a stunning remark when you think about it for a party that just lost the senate the white house and 10 seats in the house. right? >> absolutely and he is staking out that ground and positioning

his himself to win over the activists who if you go to these events believe that they are completely right. the problem was the pizza box, not the pizza. yesterday, rick perry gave a speak at cpac. he said we will -- you people are saying the party needs to be less conservative but that's not a valid crittege because they didn't nominate could beservatives in twill or 2008. >> bill: let me me stop you right there. i want to play that clip of rick perry for our listeners and forties let's talk about it on the other side. here is governor rick perry. >> now, the popular media narrative is that this country has shifted away from conservative ideals as evidenced by the last two presidential e elections. elections. >> that's what they think. >> that's what they say. that might be true if republicans had nominated

conservative candidates in 2008 and 2012. whacking john mccain came and mitt romney. >> in the same sentence. that comes for someone who wants to run again for president in 2016 believe it or not. rick perry is again trying to position himself as the old rick perry who was so popular before he ran an awful campaign. it shows that attitude. i have a story on our politico site this morning about how no one really cares that mitt romney is speaking at cpac today. it's his first speech, first pickup public speech since election flight night and i went and talked to more than adowns activists yesterday. dmrun of them cared at all what mitt romney had to say. he is not even getting a good slot. >> i was going to ask you about that. i mean, i don't even understand why he's coming to cpac.

it is certainly not his crowd. he's never going to run again. i mean he -- he could be booed today. couldn't he? >> he could, bill. yeah. i expect there is not a huge turnoutout for his speech. i expect he will turn red meat to the base. this will not be a sister socia. i think romney has members of his family who want to be in politics so he has an incentive to reach out to conservatives and rent himself as authentically conservative. this is where a year ago at this conference where romney pronounced himself a severely conservative governor of massachusetts, which annoyed conservatives more than anyone else. >> sounds like an affliction. >> so what do you expect from donald trump today? why is he there, i guess, is the initial question. >> it's a festival-like

atmosphere you know. i expect donald trump to say something that gets us to keep talking about him, that generates headlines. he tweeted ashley judd would make a great senator, and so who knows what he is going stosay? i imagine he will criticize president obama. he will say something that gets our attention. the conference is people trying to get in the news and position themselves for whatever reason. you have conservatives who are trying to one-up each other with comments and rhetoric that draw attention. >> bill: finally, is sarah palin -- is this like the beginning of her second act, or is she, you know, why is she there? it's a pretty remarkable story in how short a time sara palin went from being such a key player in the party to being irrelevant. >> bill: right.

>> she's speaking. i don't think she has the ability to make waves in any way compared to what she did a few years ago. there was no buzz about palin. the people who were hard-core palinites a few years ago have moved on. >> bill: that is very, very interesting. james, have a lot of fun over there. >> thanks, bill. >> like taking your kids to the circus. it's a lot of fuven. you have to enjoy it while you are there. james holman with politico. politico.com. >> this is "the bill press show"

>> she gets the comedians laughing... >> that's hilarious! >> ...and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there's wiggle-room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> she's joy behar. >> and current will let me say anything. >> only on current tv.

[ music ] >> taking your e-mails on any topic at any time. this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> congressman scott peters from california leading us off at the top of the next hour here robert asks: hey, the dow sets another record. so what does that do for an unemployed man with hungry children and no prospects for a job. hopefully, we will help -- it will help lift the entire economy. >> a couple of comments about cpac. there is a muiral that have the faces of many great conservative icons through the years. one of them is jesse helms. >> how about david duke? do they have him up there, too? >> they don't have david duke. >> jesse helms? good lord. the racist republican party.

>> this is "the bill press show."

[ music ] >> bill: hello, friends and neighbors. good to see you this morning. welcome to the "full-court press" on current tv. coming to you live from our nation's capitol in our studio on capitol hill booming out to you live all the way across this great land of ours bringing you the news of the day and giving you a chance to get involved in the conversation. join our town hall and let us know what you think about the issues of the day. give us a call at 866-55-press

or follow us on twitter @btshow. in rome pope francis his first day on the job showing what a humble lifestyle he is used to leading. he went off by himself, in a plain ol car. he had a driver, i guess, but no big limousine to pray a shrine to the blessed mother and stopped by his hotel to pick up his bags and pay the bill like any visiting tourist. president obama, big day on capitol hill sitting down with senate republicans and house democrats and even mitch mcconnell after the republican meeting in the senate said he thought it was a good meeting and the president showed his willingness to work together with them. the president assuring house yachts, however, that he had no intention of cutting social security, medicare or medicaid. meanwhile, across the river, at cpac, republicans, a big split over what to do with the republican party. rand paul saying we need to

clean house. we need new ideas. marko roomr rubio saying uh-uh. let's stay who we are. we don't need any new ideas. we'll cover that and more right here on current tv. rights but still support the drug war you must be high. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> do you think that there is any chance we'll see this president even say the words "carbon tax"? >> with an open mind... >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> ...and a distinctly satirical point of view. "great leadership" so i want to talk about donald rumsfeld. >> (laughter). >> watch the show. >> only on current tv.

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just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. [ music ] >> on current tv this is "the bill press show." >> bill: ten days in a row, the dow has set at record. the obama economy. welcome to the "full-court press." we are coming to you live all the way across this great land of ours on current tv. good to have you with us. also on your local progressive talk radio station. you are lucky if you've got one.

not every part of the country does. but many parts do. we appreciate your joining us because you don't have a lot of choices in the morning. make the full court press your first choice. we will tell you what's going on the nation's capitol, around the globe and give you a chance to comment. give us a call at 866-55-press. >> that's our toll-free number. you can follow us on twitter @bt show or on facebook at facebook.com/bill press show and the top of this hour we are very proud, splaysed to welcomepleased to welcome to offer from the second congressional district, san diego, congressman scott peters. nice to see you. >> good morning, bill. thanks for having me. >> congratulations. welcome to our nation's capitol. >> thank you very much. >> we will find out more about your priorities and what's going on in the big meeting with president obama. not bad to have a chance to sit

in a little give and take with the most powerful person on the planet? right? >> it was very interesting. it was nice of him to come over and talk to us. we need more of that i think. >> did you have a chance to ask questions? >> no t it was funny. after he spoke there was a line-up to three microphones and i saw some senators ahead of me who were likely to ask some long questions prefaced by a lot of comments. yes get up to the line. >> he did invite questions. >> he did. it was pretty -- he was very frank with us. i thought he was very reasonable reasonable. >> bill: i am amazed when we get a chance to ask him questions at the news conferences at the whitehouse, i am always impressed with his grasp of the issues. he really does know his stuff. >> yeah. >> he is not faking it.

congressman, you join our regular team here this morning peter ogburn and dan henning and phil backert covering the phones and cytrian boulding on the video cam. i glottis you had another visitor, freshman members of congress bill gates. >> i think one of the things that the class is trying to do is to be more bi-partisan. we didn't come in. we weren't part of the fight of 2011 and 2012. allot o us in both parties are wondering why we are not working through things. one of the things $class is committed to do is to do things together. we are getting guest speakers. we will figure who might want to talk to 8fy new members of the congress. yesterday, bill gates was kind enough to accept our invitation. >> bill: he sat down with politico and said something interesting about the sharing of the balance of power and the --

and how much power the president has to get things done. here is bill gates with politico yesterday. >> it's ironic that right now it feels like i wish there was slightly more power in the presidency to avoid some of these dead locks. so, you know, i think, you know, what he wants to do and what he is actually able to do, the gap is so big there. >> it's interesting. i don't know whether he talked about that with you yesterday. but to me, that kind of cuts both ways. there are times when you feel if only obama had more power to say this is what we are going to do? >> i didn't stay mott whole speech but he did not hear he told congress he thought presidents should have more power. >> bill: i am not sure you want to give the president -- any president more power. right? >> i am open to adjusting the system. i will tell you a couple of things. most obviously is the filibuster. what the a disaster that one

person would be able to hold up the bids of the country. >> that's literally what happens there. but in our side of the house or the congress mr. boehner doesn't have to put anything up for a vote. i made a number of floor speeches about the sequester saying, bi us some opportunities to offer alternatives and their response has been, we voted on this last year. 20%. congress is new. and none of us has had a chance to vote on -- offer any amendments or vote on any alternatives to the sequester. it's wrong. >> anything that happened last year doesn't exist. >> absolutely. >> it's a non-entity because this is a whole new congress. congressman scott peters with us this first half hour. a little bit later, we will be joined by congressman john yarmouth from kentucky and we will also check in with our good friend, dr. luther beingel at nasa about what is this about life on mars?

but first: >> the president spent the lunch hour with republicans on capitol hill yesterday but he couldn't eat the food. the hill hosted the luncheon and featured university of maine lobster salad and wild maine blueberry pie. apparently, he has to have a taster. she pointed out the president -- she pointed out to the president, had the food been poisoned, every senator in the there would are keeled over. she said president obama looked longingly at the food. it was obvious he wanted to eat it but he didn't go near it. >> that's sad. >> the other senators there were essentially tasters. >> chowing down. >> he is a long way from the early bill clinton

>> dick morris who was fired from fox news a couple of months ago is heading back to the air waves. the philadelphia daily news reporting the commentator has landed himself the afternoon talk show slot on the conservative talk station in philadelphia. he confirmed the news at cpac yesterday saying he looks forward to the opportunity to speak for four hours a day without anybody interrupting him. >> giving him four hours. >> four hours, 2:00 to 6:00 every afternoon. >>. >> four hours. >> i got a lot i could say about that. >> you cannot fail badly enough in this country. right? >> i can't think of any one person who says, i can't wait to the hear what dick morris says about whatever the news of the day is. i can't imagine he has -- yes,

ma'am. >> crushed. >> on hollywood we have seen how american idol continues to see ratings decline. maybe this was a tr stunt but the fox show did manage to make news this week because judge nikki minage was 20 minutes late to the live show. her chair was empty until she got there on national television, showbiz 411. she claims she was stuck in traffic. her call time is two hours. she was supposed there at 3:00 o'clock. >> that santa monica freeway. >> stuck on the 405. >> they have people that get them from a to b. it's not like she drove there. >> the way she was acting on twitter was that she drives herself, which i don't think is true. >> i guarantee you. >> something else is going. she showed up in a hooded sweatshirt, didn't look good. train wreck.

>> back to the meeting with the police department president yesterday, i know keith ellison and peter welch from vermont were in studio with us yesterday and they were both a little nervous about the president talks about entitlement reform. >> one of the questions yesterday. >> i was going to ask it if that came up. did the president give any reassurance about social security, medicare medicaid and his intentions? >> well, you know, he was pretty honest with us. you know, keith was concerned about the idea about the chained cpi, which is a way to adjust benefit increases that little a little bit less generous than what's country on the books. we know that people who are on social security aren't generally making a lot of money, that benefits are important to them. they aren't really generous benefits. keith expressed a concern we not cut, you know the adjustment rate and the president said, you know, he is not anxious to do that but he would like to raise the cap on earnings to generate

more revenue. what he said was, to be honest he said, look, the republicans control the house. do you think they are going to do what we want alone? and, you know, in order for us to be able to do well these issues which aren't a problem for the next 10 years but the numbers go bad the two decades after that, we are going to have to be open to it. he told keith, don't worry. there is no there is no interest in compromising. we may not make any deals but one of the president's messages was that we are going to -- if we are concerned about early childhood education and making money available for the things we care about, we are going to probably have to make compromises. >> i had a chance to interview senator bernie sanders on the hill. you mentioned lifting the cap. senator sanders mentioned -- i forget his exact number but if you lift the cap so that it doesn't cut off at 113 and take it up maybe to 150, you could take care of social security for another 20 years out.

>> absolutely. >> is that the way to go? >> as a political matter that may not be all we have to do to get a deal. but simpson-bowles that plan recognized that just a decade ago that the amount of payroll taxes that we were covering was 90% of american payroll. now because of the split in income, only covering 80% of income. if you indexed is it to cover 90%, that would be one way to go. we will see. we will see if people are really serious about taking on this issue and preserving social security >> bill: you have been practicing law in san diego environmental law. you have been at that commissioner in san diego, member of city council? right? >> right. >> in la joya. what is it like as a freshman member of congress? you have only been there since

january. are you glad you ran for the office? are you enjoying it? >> it's a big opportunity. i love public service. i have been fortunate enough to do it. i love it to be able to do things because i believe government can be a positive agent for change and that there are important -- it's an important role for government in supporting american prosperity. people in san diego would say i could get things done. trying to bring that at toured to d.c. here it's a huge honor to be here. the history of the institution is so impressive, and there has been a lot of great things accomplished here right now it's in irons. we are a ship with no wind in our sails. a lot of us are new. out of the congress, 20% of us

were selected for the first time. we sit around scratching our heads about why fly across the country. a couple ofiques weeks ago for what is essentially a bed check. we voted to name a building after neil armstrong and that was our business for the day. there are a lot of things for us to work on. we are ready to get to work. it's confusing to me and some of my colleagues about why we are not doing more. >> have you given your first floor speech? >> a couple. i gave a bunch of one-minutes. last week the party asked me to be the person who would make the motion, the alternative motion tost he republican continuing resolution proposal but my motion was to strike. let's start to work toward a regular budget.

the military a quarter of our jobs, one in four of our jobs are related in some way to military spending. second life sciences cluster. a lot is driven by investments nat national institute of health have made. these investments that the government has made have transformed the way people live around the world in addition to providing job opportunities and innovation that can propel us into the next century. the notion we would not fund that is really alarming. if you are a kid doing science, you don't have to be in the united states. you can go to china or israel or england or someplace where they are making these investments. all of the tea party folks we are going to lose our leadership and science around the world.

grants aren't getting completed on that side. but, also, in the military you know, any republican or democrat would want their government or their military to plan for the threats that they have. the sequester is putting people on leave, furlough and discouraging people we would like from serving us from thinking about the government as an option. >> two weeks into it. >> it's silly. >> scott peter did from california. in our studio. glad to take your called at 866-55-press. we will continue our conversation after this break on the "full-court press" friday march 14th. >> this is "the bill press show."

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this show is about analyzing criticizing, and holding policy to the fire. are you encouraged by what you heard the president say the other night? is this personal or is it political? a lot of my work happens by doing the things that i am given to doing anyway. staying in tough with everything that is going on politically and putting my own nuance on it. not only does senator rubio just care about rich people but somehow he thinks raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for the middle class. but we do care about them, right? vo: the war room monday to thursday at 6 eastern

[ music ] >> in this "the bill press show" >> bill: twenty-six minutes after the hour with scott peters in studio with us. your district does not go all the way down to the border. but certainly, you can't live in san diego without having experienced the immigration reform issue your entire april political career as i did when i was living in california. >> yeah. >> is this the year for immigration reform and where are we going with it? >> i hope so. san diego, the bids community has a pretty sophisticated understanding of the importance of trade.

with the mix co in addition to wanting to deal with high technology engineers, which we do in san diego and basic labor issues we have to come to risk. what if we have these people here part of the economy and we call them elite white? we have to deal with our border as an opportunity, not just something to be afraid of. and in particular, we have a boarder crossing where the statistics were if the border late was 45 minutes that would cost the california economy about $3,000,000,000 a year. since 911 we have been stricter of what we let in. the averages have been closer to two hours. sometimes up to four hours for goods and people to get across the border let, legal trade.

mexico has responded and we have not. if you go to the border today, you see mexico has completed a brand-new border crossing to make sure that we are able to move goods and people across the border. our side, we have done nothing. you wonder which is the third-world country. right? we need $121 million to finish off our infrastructure. it's the san diego chamber of commerce that's been the big advocate for getting this and being grown up about it. we are big advocates of a sensible border policy. >> just what you said is so important to see the border as an opportunities. right? and not as an opportunity to build the biggest fence? >> it's not the end. >> we need to change that altitude. sorry we are out of time. it's great to have you in the studio. please come back soon. >> good to see you. >> good luck. >> annette says hello to you. >> a big hello back.

great to have you. >> thanks. >> this is "the bill press show." >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

[ music ] >> chatting with you live at current.com/billpress, this is "the bill press show" live on your radio and current tv >> bill: indeed 33 minutes after the hour, here we are, it is the full court press, this friday morning, march 15th. we are coming to you live from our nation's capitol brought to you today by the international association of machinists goodmen and women sharpening america's edge on the global economy. you bet. for more information about their good work, go to their website,

goaim, goiam.org. good to have congressman scott pet friars california here in studio with us freshman member of congress. we realized after he walked out that he is representing la joya mitt romney's congressman. >> hi mitt. anything i can do for you today? they had monday, march 18th, a significant day in the area of american justice because it was 15 years ago on march 18th that the supreme court passed what's called a -- ruled in the gideon versus waynewright case which said if you are an american citizen and poor enough to not higher your lawyer we will give you a public defender.

fifty years later, how is that law working around the country? is it working fairly in every state? i want to borrow your book. >> karen hooper is with us. she has a book called "chasing gideon" which answers those questions? terms of supreme court decisions, this was big? >> it's a land mart decision that may established the right to counsel, if you can't afford an attorney, one will be appointed. with you hear this on t.v. but when i looked at how that plays out in the courts, i discovered that there is at serious crisis going on in the courts that almost everybody who works snail field knows about, and yet there seems to be an ability inability to reform the system.

it's not evenly applied or the promise is not being realized? >> the promising is not being realized in most judges. d.c., itself, actually does a pretty good job and they are kind of considered the gold standard of public defender offices. across the country, it's uneven. it can be uneven from one county to the next. what's happened is there has just been such crushing case loads for public defenders anywhere from, you know you public defenders maybe carrying 200 open felonies at any times 2,000 miss demeanors at one time. when you brake that down. >> bill: how could you possibly, you know, cover that many cases represent that many clients? >> you can't. you can't. so then, the question of gideon, which said, is it fair for someone to go into court without an attorney has now shifted because they have the attorney, but the question is more: is it fair for somebody to have to go

in to court where the quality of their representation depends upon how much money they have? that's the question we are looking at now because these public defenders can't spent -- they meet the person on the fly, standing in the lobby of the courtroom. what's your name? i am your attorney. let's go in and talk to the judge . >> can you imagine? whoa. who are these defenders? it's showing my bias. i always felt that the public defenders are basically attorneys who couldn't get a job anywhere else. right? and that's where they end up. >> yeah. >> if they were biggood and smart, they would make money in some big law firm. >> a lot of these public defenders go in as super idealist young people who want to make a difference. thing i want to work with the poor. they want to work on interesting criminal cases.

they don't want to work in some huge law firm where they are just working with documents. they come in excited. there is usually no mentoring program. one of public defender i talked to out in spaokane said she got hired at a public defender's office on a thursday was given a case on a friday and went into court on a monday and she had never even seen a trial in law school. she was like the only trial she had seen were on t.v. and she is in court. her colleague was showing her up opening arguments like basically on a legal pad sketching out the structure. she is thrown into that . >> /* entails that's scary. >> and then carrying hundreds of cases. i think people it attracts good people and hemorrhages attorneys because they just can't carry that workload. >> bill: there are many cases where like death penalty cases,

too where the attorney is asleep or hasn't done his homework, his or helper homework. a real quality control or lack of. >> there is a problem with that. you know, the supreme court has so far upheld that that's okay. it's okay if your attorney is drunk or sleeping as long as it's a warm body in a suit sitting next to you. the law is very tricky because in order to prove inesc-i have assistance of counsel, you have to prove not only that the attorney did a bad job but that the case would have swung the other way. and that's hard to do on an appeal. >> so do you get a choice of who your public defender is? you don't get to interview various public defenders? right? and say, this is the one i like? >> no. you are assigned although in

great britain, they have a different system where you actually do, and then there is a kind of word of mouth incentive for lawyers to do decent jobs. here, you are just assigned based on, you know, whose turn it is to take the next case. >> i don't want to spend a lot of time in ancient history but before gideon versus wayne waynewright? they didn't have one. >> they didn't have one. gideon, himself, went into court, he was accused of robbing a pool hal. he went into court and asked the judge for a lawyer. the judge was, you don't like qualify for one. you can read the transcripts or whatever and the judge basically talks him through the cases. look at these 12 jurors. actually, i think there was less than 12 down in florida at that point but look at these jurors. are they okay with you? if they are okay with you, then you say okay, you know, and gideon says, okay.

10 then the prosecutor calls, you know, a witness and the judge turns to gideon or whoever is there and says things like okay, now it's your turn if you have any questions for this person, you can ask the questions. >> can you imagine? >> yeah. >> whoa. so is there any -- the book again, karen houppert the author in studio with us "chasing gideon." it's probably in bookstores already? >> yeah. >> should be. is there any effort to reform this system now that we are at its 50th an versus re? >> yeah. there is a lot of efforts from many different directions, class action lawsuits changes judges through reforms. people are working it from every angle but for me what i think is the minutes element is the general public doesn't really know about this issue. so the political will to push

politicians to make these reforms or spend the money necessary to make these reforms doesn't exist yet sot an effort to let them inside the courtrooms to see what's happening because i think did will offend their sense of fairness. >> i am proof positive of the fact that most americans don't know much about this issue is this happen okay a state by state basis are there national efforts to put national standards out there? >> the american bar association has 10 standards they think every public defender's office should adopt. so that exists. and then because the supreme

court basically mandated the states to provide counsel but didn't tell them how to do it, most states have kind of come up with their own patchwork set of systems of the most of the reform efforts are taking plates at the state level because each system is so different that the sort of fault lines are in different places. so it's mostly state by state efforts. >> this relates to one of the real problems i have always had with the death penalty is that it's unevenly applied. it's applied 50 different ways in 50 different states. a lot of that depends upon the attorney you get? right? to represent you? >> yeah. yeah. one of the cases i write about in chasing gideon is about a death penalty case going through in georgia.

a man who was mentally retarded by his attorneys. the attorneys for the defendant had trouble getting the money they needed today higher experts in time to get the kind of witnesses and do the kind of investigation that they needed. so, it really jeopardizes the quality of public defense cases across the board but the stakes obviously go way up when it's a capital trial. >> bill: this book, very important, very important issue, not getting much media attention at all hopefully it will on this 50th anniversary of gideon versus wainwright. karen houppert thank you for raising the issue. we have a link to the book "chasing gideon." if you can't find it at your book store, get it through our website. we will be right back on the "full-court press" this friday morning. >> this is "the bill press show."

audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. iq will go way up. (vo) current tv gets the converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

>> she gets the comedians laughing... >> that's hilarious! >> ...and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there's wiggle-room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> she's joy behar. >> and current will let me say anything. >> only on current tv.

eye [ music ] >> the bill press show live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: how about it? twelve minutes before the top of the hour here on the "full-court press" this friday march 15th, in the next hour we will go to nasa and talked to luthesh beagle and congressman john yarmouth from kentucky will be in studio with us. big news yesterday on the issue

of marriage equality. it's amazing to me to see how fast public attitudes toward same-sex marriage have changed in this country. we have what i think is now up to seven states in the district of columbia that have recognized same-sex marriage, marriage equality. there are several states, more states which will do so this year. you've got ted olsen, who leading republican, former solicitor general under president bush the man who argued bush v. gore in front of the supreme court for george w. bush who is david boyce, one of the two leading attorneys who has brought the california proposition 8 issue into the -- in front of the

supreme court and the defense of marriage act. eighty leading republicans wrote a letter to the supreme court in support of overturning the defense of marriage act, and recognizing same-sex marriage at the federal level goes on and on. yesterday, republican senator rob portman, remember who was considered a leading contender for vice president to the obvious ticket with mitt romney last time. he has always been an opponent of same-sex marriage. yesterday, in an interview with cnn, he said: guess what. i am here to tell you, i changed my mind. >> i am announcing today a change of heart on an issue that a lot of people feel strongly about. it has to do with gay couples' opportunity to marry and during my career in the house and, also, last couple of years here in the senate, i have taken a position against gay marriage.

in my faith tradition. i had a personal experience which is my son came to jane my wife and i, told us that he was gay and that it was not a choice. >> bill: and rob portman goes on to say that once he had had this conversation with his son, he realized my son -- could have been his daughter -- has to be a second-class citizen? >> and that launched an interesting process for me which was kind of rethinking my position of, you know, talking to my poster and other religious leaders and going through a process of, at the end changing my position on the issue. i now believe that people ought to have the right to get married. >> bill: here is another case similar to dick cheney's position who i am sure at one

time was against same-sex marriage and his daughter and her relationships with her partner, mary i think? yes >> bill: dic cheney differing with george bush saying i supreme court it. rob portman supporting it because of his son. this is the thing, anybody who discriminates against gays and lesbian s, right? look at your own family you know. these are not just abtractions. these are our brothers our sisters, our aunts, our uncles our cousins, friends, real people. >> i really wish that it would take less for some people to see that this is what needs to be done. someone in your family, you know maybe, if rob portman happen some middle class families, maybe he could see the light on some budget proposals. he told mitt romney about it at

the time. he said he doesn't think that that disqualified him at all. the the son is a gentleman named will portman, especially proud of my dad today and tweeted out a link to the cnn interview that he did. >> bill: good for him. it also, it just -- it just shows how ludicrous theacts against marriage equality that republicans have always put up. some of them still do are. first of all, that it's based upon the bible. jesus doesn't want anyone to be treated like a second-class citizens. the bible never mentions anything about same-sex marriage. they just make that up. secondly, the idea that, which we heard for so long that if you allow steve and gym to get married, every straight couple is going to be endangered because they are going to have to get a divorce because that one same-sex marriage will undo all of the straight marriages.

it's absurd, the argument did against it. they don't stand up and more and more people on a personal level are seeing that they don't stand up. so, good for rob portman. all we can say is, what took you so long? >> you know, you can say this just one more sign that the tide is turning. >> bill: absolutely. absolutely. all right. we will be back and tell you what president obama is up to today. >> this is "the full court press: the bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv.

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>> this is "the bill press show." >> bill: all right. in the next hour congressman john yarmouth from kentucky here in studio with us. we will also be talking to nasa's dr. luther beagle about the latest finds from curiosity. we like to check in on mars on the "full-court press." . president obama going out to chick to o 'hare this morning. they will he will visit the argon national laboratory talking about america's energy policy and the need particularly to get into renewable energy at 1:30 this afternoon. coming back to washington arriving back at the whitehouse late this afternoon at knife:35 p.m. -- 5:35 p.m. no briefing at the whitehouse today. there will be a gagel with

reporters aboard "air force one" more coming up right here. >> this is "the bill press show."

>> bill: say, good morning, friends and neighbors. it is friday march 15th. good to see you today. thank you for joining us on the "full-court press." welcome to the program here on current tv. we are live all the way across this great land of ours bringing you the news of the day and giving you a chance to comment. you do so by giving us a call at 866-55-press, or joining us on twitter @bt show or on facebook at facebook.com/bill press show.

we are still keeping our eye on the new pope, pope francis spending his first day yesterday going out in one little car, no great big motorcade to pray at a shrine to the blessed mother. on the way back to the vatican he stopped at his hotel to pick up the bags and pay the bill for the last couple of weeks just like any tourist visiting rome. here in washington, d.c. president obama with his motor kade up to capitol hill yesterday for two big meetings. he first sat down with senate republicans where even mitch mcconnell said afterwards, it was a good meeting. the president knows what he is talking about. and then the president went over and got a much warmer reception from house democrats, met with them and took a lot of questions from them as well. liz charm offensive continues. on the other side of the river here, cpac is underway.

dodged trump and mitt romney are the headliners at cpac today. we will tell you all about them monday but first, more stuff coming up here on current tv. i think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that we're honest. they know that i'm not bs'ing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. when the democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. you know who's coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys who do like verse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. >> she gets the comedians laughing... >> that's hilarious! >> ...and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there's wiggle-room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> you would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me. >> absolutely!

>> and so would mitt romeny. >> she's joy behar. >> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv.

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(vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. >> broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on current tv this is "the bill press show." >> bill: ban on assault weapons passes the senate judiciary committee and heads to the senate floor. big news on the gun safety front. good morning everybody. great to see you today. friday, march 15th. how about it? here we are. it is the full court press on your local progressive talk radio station. god bless america.

and on current tv. great to have you with us this morning. appreciate your making us your choice of, you know, morning talk shows because we want to hear from you and we will not only tell you what's going on, but you canunlike anybody else, we will get give you a chance to get involved in the conversation express your point of view. you can do so on the phone 866-55-press. >> that's our toll-free number, or you can follow us on twitter send us a tweet @bt show, become our friends on facebook. i want more friends, more friends, more friends. p show, become our friends on facebook. i want more friends, more friends, more friends. you do that by facebook.com/billpress show. befriend us. talk to us and give us your take on the issues of the day. a lot going on. we have the entire team in place this friday morning, peter

ogburn and dan henning. >> hey hey hey. >> good morning. >> what's up? >> happy friday. phil back we can's got the phones covered and cytrian, as always, our video engineer on current tv. so yesterday, all of the political buzz was across the river, across the pot omac across the river, oxen hill maryland where cpac is convening. every once in a while, the circus comes to town. they march the he willelephants from the armory. >> is that the tradition? >> down the capitol, down the east capitol street. >> that's what it's like in oxen hill today. it's not the elephants. it's the clowns of the republican party gathered the head clown, donald trump will be speaking. >> i'm sorry. you cannot defend cpac with a

ledge legitimate minds of your party if donald trump is speaking. sorry. >> bill: i cannot believe they just didn't say the best thing to do was to keep him away. let him do his own public blitzty stunts -- publicity stunts he does but to invite him and give him a legitimate platform ibnsane. donald trump will be there as well as mitt romney. that should be interesting because they don't like mitt romney. yesterday, the first day of cpac, it was an interesting little split about whether the republican party needs a shake-up or not. some people say it does like rand paul. >> the g.o.p. of old has grown stale and moss-covered.

i don't think we need to name any names. >> you know who i am talking about. >> our party is encum-berled by an inconsistent approach to freedom. the new g.o.p. will need to embrace freedom in the economic and personal sphere. >> pretty pointed challenge there but mark marco rubio considered the savior of the party said we don't need to change. we don't need a better pizza. we need a better pizza box. >> we don't need a new idea. there is an idea. it's called america. and it still works. >> yeah. right. >> right t just change the pizza box. don't worry about the pizza. >> my favorite new t.v. show is watching republicans fight with each other over the future of the party. >> bill: it is fun. it's happening across the river there. we will begin this hour by checking in at nasa with dr. luther beingel and congressman john yarmouth from kentucky joining united states later in

the hour. but first. >> this is the full court press. >> other headlines -- >> what's going on? >> another big problem for the carnival cruise line, just one month after one of their ships was floating with know power, dead in the gulf of mexico, yesterday the carnival dream ship suffered mechanical problems while docked in saint martin. toilets didn't work for a while. they had a prop pulse problem issue as well. they were in port. people could leave the ship. so they cancelled the rest of the cruise. they are flying the guests home on their dime. nice of them to do that but they are only refunding them for half of this cruise plus they are offering them half off of their next cruise, should they choose to book again. >> just seems to me the carnival cruise lines, they ought to shut everything down like maybe for a week and make sure every ship is working before they take any more cruises. >> mcdonald's is adding a new healthier egg mcmuffin sandwich an eg-white only mcmust havein.

is it will sit on a whole grain muffin with canadian bacon instead of regular bankcon. contains 260 calories. the regular has 300 cal occurs and is not on whole grain bred. >> -- bread. >> the selling point is, i guess it's less -- >> i will say this in defense of mcdonald's. and i will rarely defend mcdonald's. if you are on-the-go and just like way out of time and you've got to eat breakfast that is somewhat healthy get an egg mcmuffin before you get like, you know, a steak and cheese bicit. >> you have some protein and all of that there. the fact they are lowering the calories on this new -- look. >> i can't believe it. >> if you are stuck and you've got to get brack fast that isn't a donut or something. >> and about a half a century

ago -- >> you are going to live to regret that. we are going to remind you of that. >> i am not safe around here. >> about half a sent re ago, sign i was predicted there was a god particle a sub atomic particle that is a crucial building block of the universe that likely came out of the big bang. physicists in switzerland announced they may have now found it. this comes on the heels of them announceing last summer they thought they were pretty close. now after going through massive amounts of data over the last six or seven months it is indeed there. they have been looking for this thing since 1964. >> remind me. it's bosson's. >> exactly. >> the god particle. hallelujah. whatever that means. if anybody knows what that means, right? it's probably dr. luther beagle from nasa. that may be his field of expertise.

he is our resident scientist. whenever we want to check on -- check in on the progress of curiosity on mars we -- dr. beagle is kind enough to join us? >> good morning. yourself? >> good. curiosity has been up there for seven months now. has the next proven to be worthwhile? getting a lot of good information from it? >> i think it's been great. we have done a lot of exciting things. including we just found evidence that marches, the war on marches was like the war on earth four and a half billion years ago. >> bill: the headlines say you found evidence that mars could actually have supported life. how so? >> all right. so in the past, every time we look at mars, we see either too salty, to acidic too rusty. we have found material now that's none of those things. this is something that could have been in any way on earth today, you could go out and find

conditions like this. it's not too salty. it doesn't -- like the pacific ocean or mono lake here in california. it's got the right kind of material inside it that could could be habitable to life and there are other things that make it indictmenting. >> including water you could drink, i guess? is that what you are saying? >> you could drink this water. it's -- it would be fine. it's like river water. >> we have spring, you know dasani. all of these brands. we could have mars water too i guess. when you say it could have supported life so is there any evidence that there was life on mars? >> we haven't got to that point yet. this mission isn't necessarily capable of doing that. what we are capable of doing is finding out whether the conditions, what we just found whether the conditions were real relevant to supporting life now. the next mention we do we can fine tune things a little bit,

take a different set of instruments that actually look for life, itself. and that's down the pike. >> is it a safe scientific assumption that if it could support life that, therefore, there was life at one time? >> that's an interesting question. we don't know. if what's fascinating to me is if mars, if mars had all of the right conditions on it and we still know what those conditions are because mars doesn't have plate tectonics or biology to cover up the signature did of what it was when it was early is why didn't life exist on march and we can poke a lot of these questions. if mars had life, it's fas fating. if mars doesn't have life, it's still fascinating. >> bill: i also read, dr. beegle at some point, soon, you are going to lose contact with curiosity. is that right? >> starting about april 2nd, we

can't communicate with it because all of the communications would have to look basically directly at the sun. so as mars goes behind the sun and the i think comes out the other side, we lose i think, it's april march 2nd through the 26th. we are out of contact with everything on mars. >> soo what do you do? just give it a little break there? it just sits there and waits until it comes around to the other side or what? >> yeah. we will have -- we will have the computer all fixed by then and the spacecraft will sit there. we will give it some pre-programmed things to do and everybody here on earth will catch our breath write papers, talk about what we have and then as soon as it comes out, we will have a new plan for it. and we will go forth and do really much more investigations. >> bill: how long? i know you probably told us this before, but how long do you think curiosity will be working and sending information?

what is the length of the mission planned at any rate? >> so unlike opportunity, which is solar panel and theoretically could last forever, msl has a radio thermal nuclear generator on the back end of it. >> that's got a limited lifetime. the best case scenario i have seen is like 13 years it could operate on the service which is cool because then my second grader could be in college by the time it's done working. >> that's still a long, long time. but spirit -- it's spirit and opportunity, are they both still in operation? >> opportunity is going along well. spirit did actually pass away a couple of years ago. >> yeah. and opportunity, but it's in a different part of the planet. isn't it than curiosity? >> yes. >> it's like the difference between being in los angeles and being in brazil. it's far away. we could never talk to it. >> they can never talk to eacher

on? >> no. no. they are too far away. screes so now that curiosity has sent back this evidence that there was material there that could have supported life what is its next assignment? >> so what we are going to do is we are going to confirm some things. we have some of the examples in the rover and we will do more analysis of it. what we are doing is looking for organic material in the second material. we were getting ready to thropdrop a third sample before the computer error came in. now that we've got that fixed, we are going to drop some more before -- this conjunction that happens in april. and then once we analyze it, we are going to head to the mount sharp which has evidence of half etox on mars. what we will be able to tell is we will be able to tell how long mars had these conditions. so was it 100 million years? was it a million years? was it longer than that?

we can actually understand how long mars could have existed. could have had life >> bill: wow. absolutely -- >> about six to nine months to get there. i think this proves the value of the scientific research president obama has talked about and we need to keep this country forward. good of you to take time for us sir, early on the west close. thank you so much. >> my pleasure. you guys have a great day. >> if sequester cuts research like that, it will set us back. it's fascinating what they are finding? >> it really, really is. to think of all of the great wonderful things that have come out of the space exploration program. we will be right back on the "full-court press." >> this is "the bill press

show."

[ music ] >> this is "the bill press show," live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: all right, 25 minutes after the hour now. here we go. happy friday, friday march 15th. how about it? and you know what we do on a friday. you bet. [ music ] >> bill: on every friday show, we take a look back at some of our favorite sound bytes of the week, we call them clips of the week. we start at the bottom, work our way up to the top. it's been a lively week. and nothing more lively than

cpac yesterday, where rand paul says, here is what i think about this republican party of ours: >> number 5. >> the g.o.p. of old has grown stale and moss-covered. >> bill: whoa. >> i don't think we need to name any names. do we? >> bill: no, because we know you are talking about john mccain who called him a whacko bird. in the senate yesterday, a pretty tension moment in the senate judiciary committee, senator dianne feinstein presenting her bill to ban assault weapons. ted cruz lectured her and said senator, you just don't understand what the constitution says. he didn't know who he was messing with. dianne feinstein fires back. >> i am not a sixth grader. senator, i have been on this committee for 20 years. i was a may or for nine years. it's fine you want to lecture me

on the constitution. i appreciate it. just know i have been here for a long time. i have passed on a number of bills. i studied the constitution, myself, i am reasonably well educated, and i thank you for the lecture. >> bill: now, go commit the impossible act. >> exactly. exactly. yeah. >> bill: as dick cheney once said to patrick leahy. billy joel appearing at vanderbilt university when a student said that new york state of mind, that'sfy favorite song of yours. i would like to accompany you on the piano. billy joel said, let's give it a try. >> number 3.

♪ ♪ a new york state of mind ♪ >> yeah. yeah. >> bill: the kid delivered. he did indeed. so did the miami heat the other night winning their 20th game in a row, mike english tells us about it. >> number 2. the win streak continues, count it at 20, the 4th team in n va history to win 20 games in a row in a single season as miami escapes in philadelphia with a 98 to 94 victory. >> bill: then the big announcement we have been waiting for from the balcony of saint peters in rome. >> number 1. >> i announce to you a great joy. we have a tope. >> feels so good to hear that latin spoken again. >> they say latin is a dead language

language. >> this is "the bill press show." converstion started weekdays at 9am eastern. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. (vo) tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >> you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. just be grateful current tv does not come in smellivision. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv.

[ music ] >> chatting with you live at current.com/billpress, this is the bill press show live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: how about it? 33 minutes after the hour. it is friday march 15th. this is the full court press. we are coming to you live from our nation's capitol and brought to you today by the american federation of teachers. you bet. the good men and women of the american -- of the aft, under president randy weingarten making a difference every day in

the classrooms of america. good to have their sponsorship of the full court press. president obama on capitol hill yesterday with two big meetings rounding out his charm offensive, they are calling it on capitol hill. he met with senate democrats on tuesday. the house republicans on wednesday. yesterday, he met with the senate republican caucus served lobster for lunch, which he didn't eat because his tester was not with him we found out. then he went over to meet with the house democrats, one of whom, congressman john yarmouth in studio with us tomorrow. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> your first visit of 2013. welcome? >> thank you. >> the president well received yesterday? anything come out of that meeting new or exciting? >> well, not really. the president stressed that he

was on our side and wanted to have a unified democratic caucus. i guess the only point of difference was that there was some contention over his endorsement of chained cpi, the way we calculate increases in social security benefits and there was a lot of concern in the caucus and still is about, you know, if you do that, that's going to impact low-income seniors. >> going to cut benefits? >> very significantly >> bill: yeah. >> some have estimated a thousand dollars a year and these are people their whole income is $2,122,000,000 a year. so there was i think some pushback on that and the president certainly understands that, but, you know, he said we have to negotiate something, and we will see how that goes. but anyway, that was probably the only point of real difference. >> congressman keith ellison who was in studio raised that. >> he raids that question. >> bill: i had a chance to interview senator bernie sanders last night here on the hill at

our great new hill center. and senator sanders expressing the same concern that you are talking close to a thousand dollars cuts really in benefits with that calculation called the chained cpi. and there is no doubt that the president has put it on the table. now, unfortunately for us so far, republicans have not taken him up on it. right? >> right. of course, the two arguments, one is that it would be very dangerous for 7 jores. the second argument is social security really has nothing to do with the deficit. >> exact. >> talking a deficit reduction package, that shouldn't be part of the package. the republicans don't want to negotiate, period the they would rather have the issue, i think. republicans we can't, i guess i should have really started right here. i will jump to it right now. we cannot talk to a democrat from kentucky without asking about ashley judd. is she or isn't she? i mean i know you've got that question all the time. >> i get at a time 10 to 15

times a day. and i am excited about the fact that i get the question because that's an education of how incredibly significant her can candidacy would be and the pressure it would put on mitch mcconnell because, you know, one thing -- and i will get to answer your question but one thing about mitch mcconnell, and i have known him for 45 years is that during his political career, he has never really faced any scrutiny. he's never had -- allowed the media to put pressure on him or his opponent to put pressure on him. and he's going to -- he can't avoid it. there is going to be such a media circus if ashley runs that he will be scrutinized i think, more intentionally than he has ever been. >> it will become one of the highest profile races in the country where otherwise nobody will pay much attention to it? >> it will be like a presidential primary, like the iowa caucuses for over a year i think. but, you know, i think ashley -- as ashlek has not told me she has

decided to run. i would be stunned if she doesn't. she has done and is doing everything that a serious candidate would do leading up to a race. and, you know, she has pollsters. she has done opposition research on herself to talk to democrats across kentucky: i assume across country but she is a serious potential candidate. you don't do what she is doing if you are not -- if you don't intend to run. >> does she have the chops to run? >> well, here is -- you know i have seen her in a number of formats. i have been on a coal of rally stages with her when he we were fighting mountaintop removal mining. i have seen her in a smaller setting with donors. she is extremely charming. she is extremely smart. she has a public policy degree from harvard. master's degree.

she has studied for years, particularly ol women's rights issues and poverty and empowerment. >> good in front of a crowd? >> phenomenal. she is an actress. she knows how to deliver lines and she knows how to -- i don't want to say she is manufacturing her persona because she is a genuinely nice person. but she can turn it on when she wants to. and she can be sweet and demure when she wants to be. >> bill: sounds good to me. go, ashley, go. >> she has dealt with the media world in terms of the attention. so i don't think -- she is tough-skinned. i don't think what mitch says about her or outside people will say about her is going to make much difference >> bill: it is strange. right now, already, the republicans are attacking her which is some indication that they would like to knock her down before she becomes viable? >> absolutely. when you have the opportunity to meet the voters, yourself, whether it's in person or through the media and define

yourself, negative ads don't make any difference. >> uh-huh. >> because of what people read there are suspicions anyway. when it butsts up against it, she will have more free media. she will have every opportunity one would need to define herself. >> bill: right. so back to the business of the day. you sit on the house budget committee, and you're chairman. paul ryan came out this week with the day before the president met with the republican caucus with his budget for 2014 which looks a lot like the budget for 2013 which looked a lot like the budget for 2012. >> except for -- >> bill: it's worse? >> it's worse. it's more cynical than the prior budgets because what it did was, they spent all last year campaigning against the affordable care act. and about slashing money out of medicare. >> that's been actually their mantra for two elections now.

well, in the budget, he repeals the law, affordable care all of the provisions of the law, keeps the $700,000,000,000 worth of save savings, keeps the trillion dollars worth of taxes under affordable care act. >> that's what makes this budget come close to balancing in 10 years. so all of the things he campaigned against, he put in his budget. >> uh-huh. >> then said we are going to take the money out of medicare and we are going to tax you but we are not going to give you the benefits. >> well so the republicans in the house approved it the last two times. they will approve it this time. they never got anywhere. i mean what -- to me it defies the imagination that they will come up with basically the very same plan that hasn't gotten anywhere and present it as a serious document. >> absolutely. >> nobody ought to take this seriously. >> absolutely. you know what? i blame paul ryan for it but i blame speaker boehner as well because speaker boehner put him

in a box. he said we need to have a budget forward that balances the budget in 10 years. you can't do it. i mean as draconian as his budget last year was, the budget that mitt romney had to disavow, as bad as that was t didn't balances the buth until 2040. now you are trying to do it by 223. the cuts are more crackonian including revenue from the affordable care act >> bill: isn't it a reality that the chances, even though they voted to do it 33 times in the last two years that the chances of repealing the affordable care act or obamacare, i mean there is less of a chance today than there ever was? right? >> they don't exist. it's an impossibility. >> it's been there for two years, the separate property upheld it. eight republican governors have signed on. obama care is here to stay. >> there have been literally billions and billions, tens of billions of dollars spent around the country in preparing for the

affordable care act. part has been i want plemented for going on three years. >> yeah. >> like my state is doing -- has set up the exchange for the individual insurance policies. they have i have been vested a lot of time, energy and money. we have a co-op insurance program that was about $50 million to set that up. >> that's happening all over the country. hospitals are moving toward a different way of handling patients to more what's performance-based care rather than fee-for-service. the country is rolling along >> bill: more and more people who have experienced it are signed up for any one of the programs are either patients or docs or hospitals or government officials. they like it. i mean it's working. >> yeah. this budget that we voted on in the budget committee the other day, i offered an amendment to restore the protections of --

against discrimination of a pre-existing conditions, gender rating and allowing people under 26 to stay on their parents' policies, those are all things that have been -- you know, the 26-year-old, that's been in the law and in practice and his budget repeals all of that. so, i have offered an amendment to restore those protection. every republican voted it down. so they've got a lot to answer for on these votes that they cast. >> bill: that's an important question, whether they will be held responsible for the paul ryan budget. congressman john yarmuth until studio with us. glad to take your questions or comments at 866-55-press or on twitter @bpshow.com. >> this is "the bill press show." >> only on current tv.

now? you know the kind of guys who do like verse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. >> she gets the comedians laughing... >> that's hilarious! >> ...and the thinkers thinking. >> okay, so there's wiggle-room in the ten commandments is what you're telling me. >> you would rather deal with ahmadinejad then me. >> absolutely! >> and so would mitt romeny. >> she's joy behar. >> and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking? >> only on current tv.

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joo [ music ] >> heard around the country and seen on current tv this is "the bill press show." >> bill: here we go with 12 minutes before the top of the hour here on the "full-court press" this friday march 14th, congressman john yarmuth. peter has his eye on the social media world. >> peter: lots of comments on several different issues this morning. one person tweeting in on senator dianne feinstein smacking down ted cruz on gun control yesterday, one person saying, thank you, senator feinstein for proving to senator cruz the old saying a woman's place is in the house and the senate. don griffith says mitch mcconnell has -- is threatened because he knows his is on the line. a couple of stories quickly.

cpac on the way -- underway. donald trump is speaking. neil king is there. trump started off by saying the country is in very serious trouble and so is the republican party. >> that's how he started his speech. the best and the brightest there for the g.o.p. one of thing you will appreciate 100 years ago today that woodrow wilson gathered up 100 reporters and held the first formal white house press conference in 1913. you carry on that fine tradition. >> bill: but president obama is out of town today. >> the first question he took was from helen thomas. >> bill: congressman, "new york times" did an interview with speaker boehner yesterday.

the headline is boehner stands firm on spending and taxes. he told them that there is no need to change their position from what it was last year in terms much the issues we talked about, no new revenue, cut social security, cut medicare medicaid and he said those ideas were not to blame for their losing the election. it was because mitt romney was a bad candidate. so a little sense of denial here, do you sense? >> well hasn't somebody told me the other day, the republicans say our problem is themental. their problem is they haven't gotten the message. they didn't get the message from the 2012 election. the reason romney was a bad candidate was because he took those positions. boehner is partially right. partially tone deaf. the poll that came out this week, 70% of the people don't want to cut medicaid.

the republican budget, wants to slash it. people don't want to balance the budget on the back of lower and middle income americans. the question is whether the voters will make them pay. unfortunately, as we, i am sure you have talked about ad nauseam here that the country has been redistrict in a way that a lot of these republican incumbents are in districts that actually agree with that. so we will see what happens in 2014. if my state is any indication and the trouble mitch mcconnell is in and what people like mr. trump and senator paul are saying. their going to have a problem with the voters. >> as al gore used to say, right? denial is not just a river in egypt. it seems to be rampant in the speaker's. back to the ryan budget for a second. that to me was what was so striking about the ryan budget. these are the policies that were tested by them in and by him on

the ticket so if anybody, he ought to know. more tax cuts for the wealthiest of americans. cutting medicare. turning medicare into a voucher program, all of that basically getting rid of medicaid by turning it over to the states. that was romney's platform and it was soundly rejected by the american people. he just wraps it up and ties it in a bow and says here is my budget for 2014. learned nothing. >> learned nothing. again, in the ryan budget that will be approved by the house next week, they cut the top tax rate from 39.6% to 25%. so if they give millionaires an incredibly generous break in the budget, more so than governor romney even advocate as part of his campaign. >> right. >> they do things like take the student interest rate and let it revert to instead of what it is now. in order to give tax breaks more

tax breaks to the wealthiest americans, we are going to make students pay more interest on the student loans. >> that's the kind of choices they make. >> bill: give us about 30 seconds. we talked about gun control. we talked about you and the nra before. do you feel more positive this year independent about passing sensible gun safety measures? >> i feel things like the universal backgrounds checks trafficking laws and potentially the high-capacity magazine restrictions have a chance. i think background checks will make it through. i was meeting with pta people from my state yesterday, the pta, parents and teachers of students ought to ch the. the last. but i don't think that the momentum for meaningful gun safety legislation has ended.

>> bill: this is the time. you are out in front of a lot of important issues. good of you to take time with us this morning. >> good. >> congressman john yarmuth and i will be back with a quit parting shot. this is "the bill press show." fix breakouts fast with clearasil ultra. it starts working instantly, sending the max amount of medicine allowed deep into your pores for visibly clearer skin in as little as 12 hours. yeah, it's fast. clearasil, the science of clear skin.

(vo) current tv gets the converstion started next. >> i'm a slutty bob hope. >> you are. >> the troops love me. the sweatshirt is nice and all but i could use a golden lasso. (vo) only on current tv. [ music ] >> the parting shot with bill press, this is "the bill press show." >> bill: hey, you know what? i don't know about you, but i am getting sick and tired of republicans and reporters making such a big deal over the fact that the white house cancelled those white house tours because of the sequester. ever